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New concert work: "A Toast!"


MovieMusicMaestro

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According to the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Principal Trombone, Mr Toby Oft, the Gala Concert celebrating the arrival of Mr Andris Nelsons as the BSO's new Music Director was opened by the BSO brass performing "A Toast!" composed by John Williams.

The highlight of the Gala concert for me was the new John Williams composition written for the event, "A Toast!" which used the full BSO brass section plus a few extras. The trombone voicing called for an extra bass trombone which allowed us to utilize a former Tanglewood Fellow, David Hagee, who just one week prior, won a permanent local job as Bass Trombone of the Boston Ballet. Per usual John Williams, the piece was rhythmically and harmonically exciting and stylistically perfect to kick off the Gala event that functioned as a welcome celebration to our new music director.

http://www.tobyoft.com/blog/2014/9/23/this-trombone-life

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While it wasn't advertised prior to the actual premiere, I don't find it a bit surprising that Williams would contribute with a little thing like this to the arrival of maestro Nelsons to the BSO family.

Hopefully, we'll get the chance to listen to it sometime soon.


I refuse to believe that.


Why? If it was a piece written especially for the occasion?

So was the Olympic Fanfare and "Air and Simple Gifts" and so many others...

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The gala concert wasn't broadcast by WGBH, I'm afraid.


Those were for public events, that were broadcasted.

Will this be broadcasted?

Maybe thats why it was never announced that JW wrote a new piece. It was for in-house use only.

A concert is a public event...

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Scour the wgbh archives!!! But I do know the BSO records almost every concert. They have a library that only the members of the orchestra have access to.

Let Operation Toast begin

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This is fantastic news! I'm sure we'll hear it in the near future...modern JW concert pieces tend to be recorded, if only unofficially, in some capacity.

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This is fantastic news! I'm sure we'll hear it in the near future...modern JW concert pieces tend to be recorded, if only unofficially, in some capacity.

That's just overoptimistic wishful thinking

Lots of JW fanfares have remained unheard for deades

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Another small celebratory piece! Neat! Johnny just keeps the pencil moving. :)

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Just put Darth Vader in the "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" position in the middle. That would be in essence the same thing. It would also decribe the innermost feelings of KM about the situation of the missing fanfare.

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Now it is perfect! Or actually you could have been looming benevolently in the background. I endorse this mission.

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This is fantastic news! I'm sure we'll hear it in the near future...modern JW concert pieces tend to be recorded, if only unofficially, in some capacity.

That's just overoptimistic wishful thinking

Lots of JW fanfares have remained unheard for deades

But what recent ones are unrecorded, even if unofficially? Music for Brass doesn't count because it's going to be recorded and released

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Ha, ha....thanks for the reminder, BB. Great photo!

Even if this piece was a one-off, there were no cameras and there were no one who sneakily recorded it on their smart phones or whatever, I hope it will receive a recording eventually. Or if Williams himself doesn't, someone else will pick up the score sheets and do their own version.

With each new concert piece he writes, my "quest" gets prolonged. Between that and his tv music, I think I'll be occupied for the rest of my life.

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The original article mentions that the whole concert was filmed, so it's very likely we'll get to hear this new piece soon.

I got the impression that the filmed concert was not the gala one, though I sincerely hope you're right.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 10 months later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 11 months later...

The concert where that one was premiered wasn't subject of a broadcast. That's all. No big secret there.

People are just used to get things faster, and most Williams muisc gets to be available one way or another quite fast... Not a thing that happens with most composers.

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